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CEREMONIES 



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Washington and Lafayette, 



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THE MONUMENT CEMETERY 



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PHILADELPHIA, 



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G. T. STOCKDALE, PRINTER, 117 SOUTH SECOND STREET. 



1869. 






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CORRESPONDENCE. 



Office of Monument Cemetery, 

June 3, 1869. 
William B. Mann, Esq. — 

Dear Sir : At a meeting of the Board of Managers, held on the 2d inst., 
the following resolution was adopted. 

^'Resolved, That the Managers of Monunaent Cemetery return their thanks 
to William B. Mann, Esq. for his eloquent Oration, delivered on Saturday 
afternoon, the 29th ult., on the occasion of the dedication of the Monument, 
erected to the Memory of Washington and Lafayette, and that a. Com- 
mittee of three be appointed to wait upon Mr. Mann and request of him a 
copy of the Oration for publication." 

The undersigned, the Committee appointed under the above Kesolution, 
would be greatly obliged if you would comply with the request contained 
therein, and furnish them with a copy of the Oration at your earliest conve- 
nience. 

Yours, Respectfully, 

WILLIAM VOGDES, 
JOHN SAKTAIN, 
SAM'L. RAIN. 



Philadelphia, June 8, 1869. 
My Dear Sir: — 

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note 

requesting, for publication, a copy of my address, delivered on the 29th ult., 

on the occasion of the completion of the Washington and Lafayette 

Monument. 

I enclose it herewith. — 

I assure you I esteemed it a very high compliment to be selected for so 
pleasant a duty, but I fear vay poor efforts failed to do justice to so great an 
occasion and imposing a ceremony. 

I am, very truly, yours, 

WILLIAM B. MANN. 
Wm. Voqdes, Esq., Ch'n. of Committee. 



INTRODUCTOEY REMARKS 

Made by Joseph Plankinton, Esq. Pees"t. of the Cemetery, 



■ Ladies and Gentlemen: 

In the year 1837, a public spirited and enterprising citizen 
of the then Northern Liberties of Philadelphia, Dr. John A. 
Elkinton, whose remains repose near by, being the owner 
of a tract of land, of which the grounds here enclosed formed 
a part, he conceived the project of establishing a Cemetery. 
■ And in the plan adopted by him, a Monument such as you 
see before you, was to be erected on this spot, and made a 
prominent feature of the proposed undertaking. Li pursu- 
ance of this proposed object a survey was made, and the 
ground laid out into lots and avenues as you now see it — as 
i,a,lso the circular plot, designed for the erection of the intended 
Monument. This done, the lots were oftered for sale by 
subscription at a sum, including five thousand dollars to be 
reserved as a Monument fund. 

The lots being all sold — the name it now bears was adopt- 
ed — a Board of Managers elected, and a charter obtained. 

Upon the organization of the Board of Managers, we (I say 
we, because I was one of the first Board) found ourselves 
Avithout any pecuniary means to make the needful improve- 
ments. The Monument fund was therefore borrowed, and 
applied, with the assessments upon the lots, to the improve- 
ment of the grounds. — And it was not until the year 1858 
, that the Managers found themselves in possession of the 
means for restoring the borrowed fund, and to erect the 
Monument. And when erected, the want of suflicient means 
delayed the completion of it by placing the likenesses, inscrip- 
tions and ornaments thereon as you see it now standing before 
you, until the present year. 



6 

And ROW the duty lias devolved upon me of announcing 
to you that we have assembled here this afternoon, for the 
purpose of celebrating in a formal manner, the completion 
of this Monument, erected as I before stated, in accordance 
with the design originated by the founder of this burial place 
of the dead. — A Monument, and I believe the onlj^ material 
one in the State, certainly in the City of Philadelphia, in 
memory of that illustrious man, Avho by his courage and for- 
titude as the leader of the army of the American Revolution — 
his wisdom and prudence as a Statesman, and first President 
of the United States, and his many virtues as a citizen, so 
endeared him to his countrymen that by common consent, 
they conferred upon him the proud title of "the father of 
nis country" — Our own immortal Washington! 

Connected with his, is the name of one, who though not 
a native of our country, voluntarily left a home of ease and 
affluence, crossed the ocean and participated in our straggle 
for Independence; and by his subsequent career in his 
own country earned the title of a "votary of liberty in 
two hemispheres" — The noble, the generous, the gallant 
Lafayette. 

And now my further duty is to introduce to you, as now" 
I do, the orator of the occasion, William B. Mann, Esq. 



ORATION 

DELIVERED BY 

We are assembled to-day to celebrate with appropriate 
ceremony the completion of this Monument to Washington 
and Lafayette. After many unavoidable delays the struc- 
ture is now finished and has received the proper inscriptions, 
which record a people's gratitude toward their benefactors. 
And w^ell has this spot been chosen for such purpose. Here, 
amid the memorials which grief and affection have erected 
to the memory of the loved and lost, above the tombs which 
piety and gratitude have reared, this Monument, solid and 
enduring, stands pre-eminent to testify the remembrance of 
a grateful nation of those who were the most conspicuous, as 
well as the most deserving of all who achieved our inde- 
pendence, and laid the foundations of our government. 

In accepting the invitation to address you to-day, I assure 
you I was well aware of the difficult nature of the task. 

To speak to you of the Father of his Country, what terms 
can be chosen? To pronounce an eulogium of him is impos- 
sible. ■ 

In allusions to his fame eulogy has long since been ex- 
hausted. His name has been so inseparably connected with 
the history of his country in its great struggle for independ- 
ence, that every American in early childhood learns to honor 
and revere the memory of WASiirNGTON. N^or can we ever 
forget the youthful and generous stranger who espoused our 
cause in its darkest hour, and by great services rendered his 
name worthy to be placed side by side with our hero and 



Washington. and Lafayetie! What reminiscences does 
not the recital of these names call up? The mind goes 
back to the early struggle, the dark hour, the varied fortunes 
of that long contest, when the interest of unborn millions 
was at stake; and sensations are awakened which cause our 
hearts to thrill with aflection and gratitude. 

We contrast our wonderful progress, our great power so 
recently developed, our extended territory, with what it was 
when a few feeble colonies defied the power of Britain, and 
we are amazed in comparing the present with the past. 

It is well for us to pause at times, in the midst of our un- 
rivalled progress as a people, to do homage to those who were 
mainly instrumental in founding our noblest structure of civil 
and religious liberty. Every nation, every age, every great 
epoch, has its heroes, and they are reverenced by the devotion 
with which their followers maintain and perfect their work. 
In despotic governments, where the people are subjects- and 
not rulers, heroes brighten and fade as the swelling and 
receding waves of popular passion sweep thrones and titles 
out of existence, and erect new ones to repeat the triumph 
and fall of despotism; but in this favored land of popular 
government, our heroes are revered, from generation to gen- 
eration, from age to age, and our children, and our children's 
children, will worship at the same shrines, and bless the 
same great names we bless to day, as the chief authors of our 
freedom — Washington and Lafayette. 

Had these great heroes failed and fallen, their names would 
still be lisped with affection throughout the civilized world, 
wherever human liberty has its vot^iries; but, in the provi- 
dence of an all-wise God, they were directed to the achieve- 
ment of the crowning benefaction to mankind. In France, 
Lafayette won victory for the people against despotism in 
1789, but the priceless boon Avas sacrificed to passion, and 
France ceased to be free. Since then, every dynasty has had 
its revolution, and an Imperial master is the last oftspring of 
the betrayed republic of 1849. jSTot so with the revolution of 
our colonial fathers. Their chieftans, like their people, were 
impelled to rebellion by the noblest aspirations for liberty. 
They were lovers of peace, and resorted to the terrible arbi- 



9 

trament of the sword only when "resistance to tyrants became 
obedience to God." They bled and died, and sacrificed, be- 
cause their disenthrallment was dictated alike by the crudest 
necessities and the noblest purposes; and they chose their 
• leaders because they embodied their stern integrity and high 
resolves to win liberty as an offering to the l^ew World. 

They triumphed, and behold the fruition of their sacrifices 
and heroism. Thirteen feeble colonies, with but little more 
than two millions of population, scattered along nearly two 
thousand miles of exposed seacoast, and extending to the sun- 
set side of the Alleghenies — with many of the most wealthy 
and influential openly and actively in sympathy with their 
oppressors — assumed the mighty task of establishing free 
government. Through eight sad years of privation and min- 
gled triumphs and disasters they fought the battle of human 
rights; and when the proud armies of King George held our 
chief cities, and credit, and even hope itself, seemed to have 
fled, faith in the God of Justice made the people only more 
inflexible in their purpose to maintain the immortal declara- 
tion for the defence of which they had accepted war — "That 
all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their 
Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these 
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," * * * and "that 
these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free 
and independent States. 

Since then nearly a century has passed away, and the 
votaries of Washington and Lafayette have, each succeed- 
ing year, been' gathering richer and still richer harvests 
to elevate and ennoble the human race. The great empire 
of human freedom stretches from ocean to ocean, from the 
eternal snows of the North, to the gulfs of the sunny South, 
and its progressive civilization is as expansive as the con- 
tinent. More than thirty millions of people now enjoy the 
free institutions won by fearful baptism in the blood of our 
revolutionary fathers, and thirty-seven States make up the 
family that clusters in freedom's brilliant galaxy. It has had 
sore trials. It had to re-adjust the status of the American 
republic in 1812, w^ith the still unfriendly parent Govern- 
ment. It has had rebellion, as desperate and bloody as it 



10 

Avas causeless, bat the fierce crucible chastened the Union to 
perfected libert}', and to still higher and nobler advancement 
in man's great struggle for man. Whether in war or in 
peace, whether foreign or domestic dangers threatened or 
assailed; whether shattered credit or internal discord, or 
despotic hatred of our institutions confronted us, the safety 
of the nation has ever been, as it was under the lead of Wash- 
ington and Lafayette, and as it ever will be, in the virtue, 
the intelligence, and the self-sacrificing patriotism of Ameri- 
can people. 

History-, both ancient and modern, is replete with heroes. 
Ambition has crimsoned the record of every nation, and 
often been gratified at the cost of liberty and law. Of the 
heroes of history, how few, alas, are the heroes of humanity, 
and the victors over ambition ! Of these noble few, there 
are no names more deeply enshrined in the grateful mem- 
ories of free people, in every clime, than Washington and 
Lafayette. If they had worshipped at the shrine of ambition, 
their wildest dreams of fame could not have measured their 
achievements. A fame wide as the world, enduring as time, 
and unstained by selfishness or envy, who could calculate it in 
the dark days of the infant republic? Who could have con- 
ceived the vastness, the might, the progress, the grandeur of 
the empire thej^ were about to rear ? Who could have bid ro- 
mance yield to the strange but truthful story of States, three 
thousand miles distant from each other, washed by the waves 
of the Atlantic and the Pacific, represented in a common 
capital; their people in hourly communication; their com- 
merce exchanging weekly by continuous highway' of the iron 
horse, and all obeying a common Constitution, and devoted 
to a common country? Alexander won empire, but his fame 
was written in the blood of wanton war; Rome, under her 
multiplied heroes, was mistress of the Avorld; but the am- 
bition that made her great is the author of her decline and 
fall. Her monuments are buried in the ruins of her ancient 
capital, and the world is not better because of her once boasted 
glory. ]S"apoleon, "whose bloody footsteps," in the language 
of Lafayette, France followed " through the sands of Egypt, 
and through the snows of Kussia, over fifty fields of battle, 



11 

in disaster as faithfully as in victory," and for which she 
mourned "the blood of three millions of Frenchmen," made 
his name immortal; but did not make his worshippers free. 
Ambition has made men known to fame, in all ages, but the 
names are exceptional which are memorable for a singleness 
of devotion to the disenthrallment of their people. 

When we meet to do homage to the memory of Wash- 
ington and Lafayette, we bow at an altar that the pollution 
of inordinate ambition has left unstained and untouched. 
Their lives were as blameless as their deeds were heroic. Their 
fame is the fame of the liberator, the benefactor, and the one 
every tongue confesses as the "Father of his Country," and 
the other, the great "votary of Liberty in two hemispheres." 
]!^either of them invoked war. Both had responded to the 
call of their countries before the advent of the bloody drama 
that made them chieftains; but they sought not to win re- 
nown through the flame and tempest of battle. Washington 
was called unexpectedly from his private pursuits to the com- 
mand of the army, and long hesitated before accepting it. 
War was not his trade, nor in harmony with his tastes; but 
when duty called him he obeyed, and he faithfully and suc- 
cessfully discharged his high trust. There were those about 
him who were ambitious, and they were not his friends. 
They fought for fame — Washington fought for his country; 
and neither the disgraceful jealousies of lieutenants; the per- 
il dy of one of his most trusted subordinates; the clamor of 
a sorely suffering people; the prostration of credit, nor the 
repeated disasters in the field, could for a moment swerve 
him from his accepted duty. Always wise and prudent in 
counsel, intrepid and skillful in battle, temperate in victory, 
and undaunted in adversity, he is the model military chieftain 
of history. And when his armies were triumphant and peace 
and independence were brought back upon his banners, he 
refused to mar the freedom he had won, and ruled in re- 
publican simplicity and manly fidelity, until the problem of 
government was solved, when he retired, the model hero of 
the world. By his side came an ardent youth, not yet two 
score in. years, and proftered his life for the liberation of the 
colonies. He was of noble birth and of independent fortune; 



12 

he had home, friends, culture, honors, and everything to 
tempt him to ease and enjoyment. He came when the 
darkest shadows enveloped the patriot cause. 'New York 
and Foi-t Washington had been lost, and Washington had 
retreated through Xew Jersey. He asked neither commis- 
sion nor pay, but Congress declared him a Major General, 
intending the commission to be honorary; but the youth 
proved his fitness for a division, as he sealed hi^ devotion to 
liberty by his blood, at Brandy wine. Twice he returned to 
France to aid the struggling Colonists, and when the French 
became an ally, he bore from King Lou is XVI to Washington, 
a commission appointing him a Lieutenant General in the 
French Army, and Yice-Admiral in the French ISTavy, to ena- 
ble him to command the united forces battling for our indepen- 
dence. Throughout the entire struggle, wherever he could 
best serve the cause, there was thisyoung chieftain, and not till 
England fully assented to the separation, was the sword of La- 
fayette sheathed, or his means and efibrts withheld from the 
revolution. And when he had aided so conspicuously to found 
the new Empire of Freedom, and its civil honors were offered 
him by both Washington and Jefferson, he modestly de- 
clined them all, and returned to complete in France what he 
had so gloriously begun here. When the people of France 
declared for a liberal government, he joined the Assembly 
in abolishing feudal titles, and voluntarily laid down that of 
Marquis, to be known thenceforth by the title he had won 
in the noblest of hej-oic struggles — a General in the patriot 
army. His eventful and noble life was extended beyond the 
period allotted to mortals, but it was ever devoted to the ad- 
vancement of liberty and justice. Banished from his native 
land by the passions which ruled with Robespierre, and con- 
fined in a felon's cell in Austria, he returned to France to 
re-enter the councils of the nation during the perils of 
Napoleon's abdication; and subsequently, by special invita- 
tion of Congress, he visited the United States, to be welcomed 
by the hearty plaudits of a mighty nation. 

He was present, in 1825, at the laying of the corner-stone 
of the Bunker Hill Monument. Mr. Webster, in his address 
there delivered, turned to Lafayette, and accostedhim in 
these words : 



13 

"Sir, we are assembled to comraeraorate the establishment 
of great public principles of liberty, and to do honor to the 
distinguished dead. 

"The occasion is too severe for eulogy to the living; but, 
sir, your interesting relation to this country, the peculiar 
circumstances which surround you and surround us, call upon 
me to express the happiness ^\4iich we derive from your 
presence and aid in the solemn commemoration, 

"Fortunate, fortunate man, with what measures of devo- 
tion will you not thank God for the circumstances of your 
extraordinary life. 

"You are connected with both hemispheres and with two 
generations. 

"Heaven saw fit to ordain that the electric spark of liberty 
should be conducted through you from the JSTew "World to 
the Old; and we, who are now here to perform this duty ot 
patriotism, have all of us long ago received it in charge from 
our fathers to cherish your name and your virtues. 

"You will account it an instance of your good fortune sir, 
that you crossed the seas to visit us at a time which enables 
you to be present at this solemnity. 

"You now behold the field, the renown of which reached 
you in the heart of France, and caused a thrill in your ar- 
dent bosom. 

"You see the lines of the little redoubt thrown up by the 
incredible dilligence of Prescott, defended to the last extreni- 
ity by his lion-hearted valor, and within which the corner- 
stone of our monument has now taken its position. 

"You see where Warren fell, and where Parker, Gardener, 
McCleary, Moore, and other early patriots fell with him. 

"Those who survived that day, and whose lives have been 
prolonged to the present hour, are now around you. 

"Some of them you have known in the trying scenes of 
war. 

"Behold, they now stretch forth their feeble arms to em- 
brace you. Behold, they raise their trembling voices to 
invoke the blessing of God on you and yours forever. 

" Sir, you have assisted us in laying the foundations of this 
edifice; you have heard us rehearse with our feeble commend- 



14 

ation the names of our departed patriots. Sir, moiuiraents 
and eulogy belong to the dead. We give them this day to 
"Warren and liis associates. On other occasions they have 
heen given to your more immediate companions in arms; 
to Washington, to Greene, to Gates, Sullivan and Lincoln. 

"Sir we have become reluctant to grant these, our highest 
and last honors, further; we would gladly hold them yet back 
from the little remnant of that immortal band. Serus in 
cadiim redeas. Illustrious as are your merits, yet far, very far 
distant be the day when any inscription shall bear your name, 
or any tongue pronounce its eulogy." 

Alas, that far distant day has come, and the great orator 
who then spake; and the hero that then listened, both sleep 
now the sleep that knows no wakening. 

"Monuments and eulogy belong to the dead. 

ISTow let the inscription bear the name of Lafayette, and 
every tongue pronounce his eulogy. 

Let us place his name upon our monuments beside that of 
our "Washington. For as they fought and endured together, 
so let their names be jointly treasured. Let the youths of 
America study their history and emulate their example. 

Tlie wasting hand of time will eflace these inscriptions; 
the neglect of those who come after us may fail to renew 
them; the stones that constitute this pile may become a heap 
of ruins; our proudest n).emorials may fall into decay, and 
perish from the earth; 

"When water-drops have worn these stones away, 
And blind oblivion swallowed cities up; 

let us fondly hope that even then the great fabric of Consti- 
tutional Government erected by our forefathers shall continue 
to exist from age to age, the proudest and most enduring 
monument of the name and fame of those great benefactors 
of mankind, who will only be forgotten when liberty has no 
altar, or freedom no votary to worship at its shrine. 



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CEREMONIES 



ON THE 



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Washington and Lafayette, 






IN 



THE MONUMENT CEMETERY 



OF 



PHILADELFIIIA, 




G. T. STOCKDALE, PRINTER, 117 SOUTH SECOND STREET, 



1869- 



"^i^^^S^^^^ 



ii&&&&&&&'S& 







"THE MOKHMENT CEMETERY OF PHILADELPHIA," 

COMMENCED SEPTEMBER 1, 1837, 
Incorpoi'ated hy the Legislature 3Iarch 19, 1S38, 



Present Oncers and 3Ianagers : 

F*residen<, 
J0SE:I>H P»LANIiIJS"TON". 



Secretary, 
ENOCH TA^VrLOK.. 



Treasurer, 
AVILLIAIM VOGJDES. 



INIanagers, 

JOSEPIT PIAN_KINTON; : . ._ CHARLES TYRELL, 

LXbfll lAY lOR, :" DAVID B. BENTLEY,, 

WILLIAM VOGDES, """^ ' SAMUEL RAIN, 

yC/VJN MK-TAINj', ,. •■ CHARLES ERINTTZINGnOrFER, 

.SPJErjCiHTl fti»KJR.Tf5..' r HENRY ROHKMAN, 

GEURGE R. JOHNSON, JOHN W. MASSEY, 

UE.NRY SCHELL, DANIEL WITHAM, 
JACOB KNIGHT. 



B D '04 



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